Chapter 2
AN : "Egyptian Language" only count when it's Yugi's POV
Disclaimer : I Don't own Yu Gi Oh!
Thought
Letter
-Telephone-
"Dialogue"
"Egyptian Language"
Emphasis
Dangerous tone
The Sudden Arrival
He ignored the call and keep running, his chest was burning from the lack of air, but he ignored it as well and keep running.
"Stop right there!"
He was panting as he ran as fast as he could from the approaching figured behind him, his was out of breath but he forced his legs to keep running, as soon as he passed the gate, he was safe.
"I said stop! Don't you hear me?!"
He took a chance and looked behind him to see a tall man about 18 years old with tanned skin, just like the rest of them, with brown hair and an icy blue eyes running after him and quickly approaching him. He panicked and looked ahead before hastening his pace.
"Stop him!" The man behind him yelled to the guards ahead of him.
He scowled and glared at them and they didn't have any choice but to let him go, he heard the frustrated yell from behind him when he passed the gate and hopped onto the horse he had prepared beforehand, he grinned and took off immediately.
"STUPID COUSIN! GET BACK HERE!" An enraged yell make him looked behind to the tall man from before and stuck out his tongue, not a wise thing to do on top of a running horse but he didn't care, "JUST YOU WAIT, YOU HEAR?! I WILL DEFINITELY COME AND GET YOU! ATEEEM!".
Atem laughed joyously and looked ahead of him with a big grin on his face. Finally, he could got to the Market again. It had been a long time since he could go to the Market in the town nearby by himself, and he planned to make a good use of it.
He already make a plan for when he finally could get away from the Palace, he would buy the fruits for his breakfast, then he would go to the Duel Arena and have a simply Duel with the people, before he went around the town to see if there's anything that would caught his interest. He chuckled when he thought of his plan and continued riding to the town.
When he arrived at the town, me stopped his horse by the entrance and walked in. He should be wary and cautious about his surrounding, he didn't have a single guard with him, but that fact didn't faze him a bit. He was a fighter himself, and he had his Ruby decorated Sword with him, not to mention he could use Shadow Magic to protect himself. So he didn't care that he was alone by himself and just entered the town, he had a plan to do and he would make a good use of it.
But just as he was only two steps entering the town, a hand gripped his shoulder tightly that he wince in the slight pain. "Got you." His eyes widened when he heard the voice he had known so well.
He turned around and gasped when he saw that it was, indeed, his Cousin who had caught him. "Seth!" He gasped in shock before glaring at his Cousin, "Let me go!".
"I won't." Seth answered with a smirk, "I already said that I would come and get you, remember?".
Atem groaned, "But Seth . . ." He whined to his Cousin with a pout, "I just want to have a break today".
"Not today." Seth said sternly, "You are a Pharaoh, Atem." He reminded his Cousin, "There's important work that you need to attend to, not to mention we have an important meeting planned for today, at the morning. And you just run off? Not a chance, let's get back".
With that, Seth dragged Atem to his horse and they rode back to the Palace, with Atem whining about too much work all the way to the Palace.
Atem might be a Pharaoh, but he didn't want to have to be a Pharaoh so soon. He had begged his Council to just let Seth become the Pharaoh until he reach 18, since he was still young and he wanted to play around still until he reached adulthood. But no, they refused to do as he wish and crowned him as the Pharaoh at the age of 15.
He had been a Pharaoh since then due to his Father getting killed by an assassin, they had caught the assassin but the man refused to tell them who hired him to kill the Pharaoh. So, Atem was forced to be the Pharaoh while he just want to play around still, but duty called first . . . or so Seth said and he couldn't play around anymore and did his job as the Pharaoh.
But after half a year of becoming a Pharaoh, he grew bored and he began trying to sneak out of the Palace to get to the town, too bad that Seth would always caught him before he even get to the town. Now, he had managed to get to the town, but again Seth caught him and dragged him back to the Palace.
"High Priest Seth." An elderly man called out to his Cousin, "You brought the Pharaoh back, Thank Ra".
When Atem proposed that Seth would take his position as the Pharaoh a year back, his Cousin had refused, saying that he should be the Pharaoh since he was the previous Pharaoh's Son. Atem was left with no choice but to take up the position, but just after he was crowned the Pharaoh, he had found out that his Cousin chose to be the High Priest who hold the Millennium Rod instead of being the Pharaoh like Atem asked of him. This fact annoyed him to no end and he would blame his Cousin every time he make a mistake, saying that he was only a young teen and that mistake wouldn't be made if only Seth become the Pharaoh until he turned 18 instead.
"Of course, Shimon." Seth answered as he gently pushed Atem to his Chamber's direction, "The meeting will start in a few minutes, get dressed and head to the Throne Room".
Atem puffed his cheeks and stomped off to his Chamber, he was in a bad mood and everyone know it, so the people would moved out of the way the second they saw the Pharaoh storming to his Chamber.
"He is being childish again." Shimon commented as he and Seth saw the retreating back ot their Pharaoh, "But he is the only one qualified to be the Pharaoh".
"Indeed." Seth answered with a tired smile, "If only my Mother was of the Royalty, I would gladly take over the position as the Pharaoh until he reach 18, he still need some time to play until he finally realize just how important a Pharaoh is to Egypt".
Seth's Father might be the younger Brother of the previous Pharaoh, but since his Mother was of a peasant, not from the Royal Bloodlines, he couldn't take over the position of the Pharaoh as long as Atem was alive. Only in the time when Atem was dead and he didn't have a successor that Seth could ascend to the Throne, but Atem was alive so he need to be the Pharaoh instead of Seth.
Seth was sure that Atem understand this fact in the depth of his heart, that's why Atem didn't argued too much about it and accepted his position as the rightful Pharaoh. But since his Cousin was just being childish, he would blame Seth for every little mistake he made, for the big mistake though, not that Atem ever made a fatal mistake like that, he would not blame Seth, that was for sure. As childish as Atem could be, he was a courageous boy, he would take the blame if it's really his fault that something bad happened.
"I wish I could help him more so he could still play around as much as he wish, but we need him to be mature soon, or we might got in trouble in the future." Seth said with a deep sigh before looking at Shimon, "Do you think you could get some sense into his thick head? We need him become a responsible Pharaoh soon or a problem would arise, we only have a year left to change him before the people feel the need to revolt".
"I will try my best." Shimon nodded to him, "Why don't we go to the Throne Room and wait for the Pharaoh in there? I'm sure that he wouldn't dare to run off again now, he only tried to run off once in a week after all".
Indeed, as much as Atem wanted to play around, he was well aware that he was needed by his people and his Country, so he would only tried to run away from the Palace once in a week instead of every day in his life. He thought that if it's only a day in a week, there might be not a problem with it, he just couldn't understand why Seth would be so adamant in not letting him go.
The problem though, Atem always chose for the wrong day to go. Every time Atem tried to run off, it's always when they need to discuss about the peace treaty with the other Countries, so Seth couldn't let his Cousin go out at all. When it's not the day as important as that, Seth would let Atem go for a certain amount of time in condition that Atem would bring some guards with him.
Aside from Atem always choosing the wrong day to run off, Seth was also worried about his Cousin's safety. A Pharaoh's life was always in a constant danger, the fact that he was a Pharaoh alone would enough to make some assassin to wanting to kill him, so Seth didn't have a choice but to forbid Atem go out by himself.
Seth sighed again and looked at Shimon, "Let's head to the Throne Room then." He agreed with a nod, "We still need to prepare the meeting, so the Pharaoh could start it as soon as he arrive".
XXXXX
"I couldn't believe it!" Atem exclaimed to himself as he changed his cheap looking clothes into that of a Pharaoh, "I was really close, so close! I thought that once I got to the town, Seth wouldn't be able to get me." He looked at his reflection as he wore his Crown, "Why, oh why, I couldn't get a free time for myself? I only want to play a bit in between my duty as a Pharaoh".
He stared at his reflection as the star shape haired boy from inside the mirror looking back at him, crimson eyes staring right back to crimson eyes, his sharp eyes and high cheek bones make him looked regal and mature, but the pout he was now showing on his face make him looked kind of cute.
He sighed and decided to suck it up and get done with it, he would try to run off again next week, he already lose his chance for the week. He shook his head and slapped both of his cheeks softly to get rid of his pout and headed out of his room, his dark blue Cape flowing right behind him as he walked to the Throne Room. The sooner he get done with the meeting, the sooner he could just find his childhood friend and trained some magic together with her.
As he walked to the Throne Room, he noticed that the servants who works in the Palace didn't moved away from him like seeing a Demon again. Instead, they would bowed to him and then went back to their job, just like how he wanted them to do. When he was newly crowned as a Pharaoh, the people would always went down to their knees and bowed with their nose touching the ground every time he walked by. One day, he had had enough and announced that they should never do it again to him. If they wanted to show their respect, they could just bowed while standing and then went back to their job, he would be the one calling them if he needed their service.
Needless to say, his Councils disagreed with him and told him that it's a tradition that the people knelt and bowed when they saw him, but Atem turned a deaf ear on them. He retorted to them by saying that he was the Pharaoh, and so he would do as he please. If he didn't want for his people to do it then they shouldn't do it, that was the one time that he would take an advantage of his position to get what he want, and he never did it again since then.
A Pharaoh's words was the Law, so he shouldn't take advantage from his position, that's why he vowed to never said anything out of his anger because the outcome would be bad. But during the time, he felt the need to change the tradition, and so he use the power of his Words to make sure the people wouldn't bowed down while kneeling until their nose touch the ground when he was around them, he felt that something like that was unneeded.
Atem entered the Throne Room and walked to his Throne without a word, his Councils bowed to him and he nodded to them. "Begin." He said with an expressionless face, and they began the meeting.
He would listen to them about what needed to be done, and he would often asked Shimon, his Adviser, to give him some advice regarding the matters. After Shimon voiced his advice, he would think about it and then decided what he wanted them to do about it. The problem was he grew bored about that meeting so easily, too bad that the discussion was important, or he would just appointed his Cousin to take over while he went to his room and take a nap.
"We received a report from the Greece that they agreed to the condition we set up for the peace treaty." Seth reported to him with his eyes glued to the report he had in his hands, "The would send their Ambassador to Egypt to sign the Contract in 3 months time".
"Good." Atem answered with a nod. Of course, with Seth being our best Negotiator, there's no way they would disagree. He added in in his mind, he admired his Cousin's ability to talk his way to people, he couldn't do the same with his Cousin. The only time he managed to talk his way was when he erased the law of Slavery so that there's no Slave anymore and only servants being around, and the time when he announced that the people shouldn't get to their head and knees just to show their respect to him.
"The Chinese Emperor sent us a message saying that he want to know the condition for the new Peace Agreement." Seth said as he looked at Atem, "Should we keep the previous one or make a new condition?".
Atem raised an eyebrow, "I will leave it to you, Seth." He said casually.
Seth sighed and went back to reading the report, "We received the report that there's so many act of thievery lately, what are you going to do about it?" He asked again.
"Increase the security, tell the guards to do a constant patrol so they would have more chance in catching the thieves." Atem answered in boredom, he looked outside his window to erase his mood, a mistake for his attention was not at the meeting anymore the moment he saw just how good the weather was.
Ah, with this good of a weather, it would be more fun if I'm in the town today, Atem thought with a sigh as he watched the clouds moving freely in the sky, I miss being a child, when I could go to wherever I want as much as I could with Seth accompany me anywhere I want to go.
The reason why he could never hate Seth, even though Seth would never let him go out of the Palace anymore, was the fact that Seth was the one who was always there for him if something bad happened to him. Even when he naively go to a dangerous place just because someone sweet talking him, Seth would always come to his rescue because Seth was a better fighter than him in the past, and when he would get scold for his naive action, Seth would always be there to comfort him, to lifted his dampened mood.
Now that he thought about it, Seth was also a mother hen back when they were still 8 and 10 years old brats, he would scold him when he make a mistake, but then he would also tried his best to make sure Atem learned from his mistake. There's also that time when Atem nearly got bitten by a snake in his garden, Seth, who was nearby at the time, saved him even though he was the one who get bitten in the end, and then he would make sure not a single snake could be found in the garden anymore before heading for the Healing Chamber.
Atem was mad at Seth that time, because his Cousin wouldn't head for the Healing Chamber right away, instead he was searching if there's any other snake in the garden first. It's only because Seth needed so much rest after that incident that Atem didn't yelled at Seth about what he did, Seth could just called the guards to make sure that there's no snake in the garden anymore, but his Cousin would just had to do it himself.
Atem smiled fondly, it's also only because Seth acted as if nothing happened that he forgive his savior, because even though Atem had yelled at his Cousin for being so reckless while bawling his eyes out, Seth would only smiled at him and said that it was nothing he couldn't handle. All that just to make sure that Atem would be alright, that nothing bad would happened to him.
Atem was grateful that his Cousin chose to support him than fighting for the Throne, because even though with his bloodline's problem, Seth could become a Pharaoh as well if he had the support of the people. It's just he was annoyed that Seth decided to not helping him when he practically begging him to take over the position of the Pharaoh for the time being until he reach adulthood, but it's not like he could stay mad at his Cousin for a long time, he know that sooner or later, he would have to accept that he need to be the Pharaoh and no one else. For the time being though, he would act as childish as he want, at least until he reach adulthood.
"There's also a matter of Successor of the Throne, you still haven't show any sign that you are interested in one of the Princesses from the other Countries." Seth said as he read the message from Libya, "Libya want to know if you would like to meet with their Princess if you still haven't meet with a possible suitor".
Silence.
Seth frowned and looked up to see that his Cousin was looking outside the window.
"Your Majesty." Shimon called out for Atem's attention, but the Pharaoh didn't even glance at him.
"My Pharaoh?" Another High Priest who was also the High Mage of the Palace, Mahad, also called out for the Pharaoh, but the said Pharaoh was still in his own world.
Seth sighed and rolled up the scroll, where he had written all the message they received from the other Countries and the complain from the people so he would only need to brought a scroll instead of many papers into the Throne Room, and marched up to the Throne. "Atem?" He tried to get his Cousin's attention by asking first, but when his Cousin didn't responded and his eyes still unfocused due to him went into the dream land with open eyes, he smacked his Cousin's head upside down with the scroll.
"Ouch!" Atem yelped when he felt a sudden pain from the top of his head and he looked up to meet the disapproving stare of his Cousin, "What?" He asked with a pouty glare while rubbing the sore spot on his head.
Seth sighed again and returned to his original spot just the right side of Atem's Throne, "You need to pay attention in the meeting, Pharaoh." He reminded his Cousin.
Atem sighed and nodded before he yawn, "I will try." He said simply and looked at Seth with expectant eyes.
Seth nodded and unrolled the scroll again, "Back to what I said earlier, Libya want to know if you would want to meet with their Princess if you still haven't found a suitor." He looked at Atem and raised an eyebrow, "How do you say about it?".
"No." Atem answered simply.
"No then." Seth said and write down the answer before looking back at Atem, "Why?".
"I'm not interested with searching for a bride yet." Atem answered simply.
"But Your Majesty." Shimon started with a bow, "You are the Mighty Pharaoh, you need to have an Heir to the Throne".
"I don't wanna." Atem answered with a wave of his hand, "I'm still 16, I don't want to have to deal with the nosy Princesses yet".
"But you need to have an Heir to the Throne, My Pharaoh." Mahad answered, "What if something happened to you? You need to start searching for a suitable woman to be your bride".
"Don't wanna." Atem repeated calmly and boredly.
"Pharaoh." Seth started but Atem raised his hand.
"If something happened to me that would causing my death before I have an Heir, I chose Seth to take over my position." Atem answered calmly, "I already write it down in every Peace Agreement we have with the other Countries so there's no need for them to bugging me to search for a wife, I would send the message to Libya soon, so stop pestering me about searching for a bride".
Seth, Shimon, and Mahad, along with the rest of the Councils, could only sighed since the Pharaoh was so stubborn about it. "Alright." Seth answered and looked at the next report.
The meeting continued and Atem began to grow bored again, he nearly looked at the outside of his window again when he noticed something strange in the room. "Mahad." He called out to his High Mage as he stared intently at the small disturbance in the middle of the Throne Room, "Could you check what-" he couldn't finished his words because suddenly a bright light exploded in the middle of teh Throne Room, forcing them to either looked away or closing their eyes, else they risked losing their eyesight.
"What's that?!" Seth yelled as he pulled out his Millennium Rod, ready to defend his Pharaoh if that was a threat of some kind, but he was speechless when he saw what was causing the bright light.
"What's happened?" Atem said as he rubbed his eyes, there's still black spot from when he saw the light explosion, he didn't fast enough to close his eyes and so he now had black spot disturbing his eyesight.
"That . . ." Shimon started as he gawking at what he saw, "A . . . boy?".
"A boy?" Atem asked in confusion and focused on the center of the Throne Room, and, indeed, he saw a boy lying there unconscious, "What in the world?".
"Who is that boy?" Akhunadin, a High Priest with one eye, since his other eye was replaced by the Millennium Eye, asked as he looked at the unconscious boy in suspicion. "We couldn't take a chance. Guards, take that boy to the Dungeon for the time being".
"Wait." Atem stopped him as he stood up from his Throne and walked to the boy, ignoring the warning from his Cousin, he bent down to looked at the boy, who looked so much like Atem himself aside from the boy's pale skin and the lack of Lightning Bolts on the boy's hair, that they suddenly found in the Throne Room, "Isis, check over this boy".
"Yes, Pharaoh." Isis, the only High Priestess among his Councils who was the Holder of the Millennium Necklace, bowed to him and walked over to the boy. She knelt down beside the boy and checked him over, she stood up and bowed to the Pharaoh after she finished, "The boy is alright, My Pharaoh, only had a bit of dehydration and lack of sleep. I think that he should be awake by the time Ra had risen tomorrow Morning".
Atem nodded, "Shada, check his mind to make sure that he is not dangerous." He said as he looked at a bald man standing beside Akhunadin.
The man bowed and pointed his Millennium Key to the boy's direction, he closed his eyes and frowned before opening his eyes again. He bowed to the Pharaoh again, "Something prevented me to enter the boy's mind, My Pharaoh." He reported, "But I'm certain that I didn't feel a single malice coming from the boy's mind".
Atem nodded and looked at the guards, "Take this boy to one of the Guest Chamber and guard it." He ordered, "Give the boy some water and let him sleep, when the boy had woken up, bring him to the Throne Room".
"Understood, your Majesty." The guards said with a bow before doing as they were ordered to.
Atem nodded in satisfaction and looked at the Councils, "Meeting adjourned." He said simply and left to take a break.
Seth pace palmed as soon as Atem was out of sight, "And he left just like that?" He asked with a sigh.
"At least he listened more than halfway through the meeting." Shimon commented and bowed to them, "I will also take my leave then".
Seth nodded and then each one of them left the Throne Room.
XXXXX
The reason why Atem left the meeting was because he had seen something interesting from the boy's belonging, it's certainly was a bag, but the bag was made from a mix of leather and thick fabric and some steel. He didn't know how to open it and was curious about the bag, so he brought the bag to his Chamber and began observing the bag so he could find a way to open it.
"Huh? What is this thing?" Atem muttered as he pulled a piece of steel coming out from a line of something, he was surprised when the thing moved when he pulled it. He gasped, he had found a way to open the bag, and he pulled it all the way following the line of black color decorating the grey colored bag. He grinned in triumph and pulled out the items being kept inside the bag, but then he frowned again in confusion. "What are these things again?" He asked himself as he emptied the strange bag.
He found two strange looking containers with something looked like water inside, a strange thing that somehow could be wore around someone's hand, a small black colored thing with some strange button and a piece of glass-looking on it, and a strange item which keeping some papers and coins, but the coins weren't like the one he had in Egypt. He also found two pieces of objects made from papers, one of them big while the other smaller, along with something like a round and thin bag. He opened the round and long bag only to find many strange thin items inside, then there's also a metal like object with a really small glass-looking item on it inside the bigger bag. He shrugged and put them back into the bag, he would just have to ask the boy what the items were if he wanted to know.
He then proceed to close the bag again when he saw something, he pulled it out to see that it's another bag looking object, a really small one, and didn't have the long line like th other two bag. He was wondering how to open the small bag when he noticed that the bag was not flat surfaced like the other bags, there's something stuck out at one of the side of it. Curious, he pulled at the one at the top and was surprised when the bag opened, ge grinned and pulled out what was inside the really small bag and gasped at what he saw.
Inside was many thick papers with pictures, but what shocked him was the picture on the thick papers, it's the picture of Ka Monsters, and there's so many of them. Mystical Elf, Kuriboh, Curse of Dragon, Summoned Skull, and so on, and he also found many Spell Caster Kas on them. The Kas that caught his attention was none other than Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, Mahad's and Mana's Ka Monsters.
"Is that boy a Mage?" Atem asked himself as he looked through the thick papers, "Did he seal these many Kas inside this thick paper? But how in the world he could seal these strong Monsters inside this small thick papers? Even we need a big stone slabs in order to seal a Ka monster. And how in the world he could find another Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl?".
The boy must be a Mage, for he could sealed up so many Ka Monsters, and a strong one considering the medium the boy used to seal the Ka monsters are thick papers. But . . . What is this strange symbols on the thick papers? Atem stared at the strange symbols on the thick papers in confusion, there's so many symbols and each of them were different than another.
Atem groaned and just put the thick papers inside the small bag again and put them into the bigger bags along with the many strange objects, "I will just have to ask the boy when he woke up." He said and stood up, he opened the door to his Chamber and found a pair of guards standing by each side of his door, "One of you, take this bag to that boy's Chamber, I think that this bag is important to him".
"Understood, Pharaoh." The guard on his left side said and took the bag before walking away to the Guest Chambers direction.
The next day, Atem woke up to find Seth already standing by his bed, Time for a long and boring meeting, he thought as he got up with a sigh.
To be continued . . .
Froim : Please Review ^ ^
